Cowboys @ Ravens Halftime Notes

Oct 14, 2012; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (5) passes as he is pressured by Dallas Cowboys outside linebacker Victor Butler (57) in the first quarter at M

The first half was a bit of a nightmare for the Ravens. The score isn’t out of control or anything like that, but the Ravens have lost their two best defensive players in Lardarius Webb and Haloti Ngata. The only good news is that neither injury seems to be serious and there is some chance that both could return by the end of the game.

– The Ravens run defense has continued to be terrible this week. Demarco Murray has gashed the Ravens for about 100 first half yards, they have to find a way to stop the bleeding or teams will just continue to run the ball.

– Cary Williams has his third straight game with an Interception. He made a diving snag of an overthrown pass and prevented the Cowboys from having a shot at a long field goal in the closing minutes of the half. Williams had received a ton of negativity and he has responded with three straight excellent games.

– Ray Rice has looked very good in this game. His two biggest plays came on the same drive when he had a 43 yard catch and then a few plays later he had a short yardage touchdown. Rice accounted for all but 18 of that drives 80 yards.

– Bernard pierce and Vontae Leech both deserve props here too. Pierce had a few nice runs, most notably a 14 yard gashing run inside the redzone to set up the Ray Rice TD. Leech has been excellent on every play so far.

– I called out the Ravens multiple time last week for their lack of pink attire to support breast cancer awareness and the NFLs crucial catch program. This week they have responded in a big big way and every player is wearing at least a couple pink things. I am going to go ahead and take credit for the change of heart.

– the Ravens final drive was a thing of beauty. It really got going after a 17 yard catch on 3rd and 14 by Anquan Boldin. That was quickly followed by 2 more Boldin catches and 2 straight Pitta Catches and capped off by a beautiful Torrey Smith TD catch on the side of the endzone over Morris Claiborne to give them a 17-10 lead. The Ravens offense looks like it is back on track.

– Also noteworthy was that Claiborne appeared to injure his right knee on the TD catch, he was checked on by the trainers on the sideline, no word on his status moving forward.

– The Ravens struggles on D could be summed up by one phrase. Missed tackles. The Ravens missed at least 10 tackles in the first half. It seemed like Murray spent the whole half just bouncing off of Ravens defenders.

– The Ravens are up by 7 heading to halftime. The Cowboys get the ball to start the second half. A stop followed by a quick score of at least 3 would go a very long way towards winning this game. Look for the Ravens to attack the Cowboys secondary if Claiborne turns out to be a second half scratch.